The Full Comparison: Bose Soundlink Revolve vs. Revolve Plus

We’ve examined the Bose Soundlink Revolve and Bose Soundlink Revolve+ to run a full comparison looking at the reviews, audiophile blogs, and costumer reviews they’ve thus far received. This is in the same spirit as our complete meta-review of the best travel Bluetooth speakers.

Both the Revolve and the Revolve+ have so far gotten great reactions, and we’ll discuss those in more detail below. First, a quick side-by-side comparison; essentially, the Revolve+ is the bigger, louder, more expensive big sister to the Revolve.

Update History of This Article

This article was originally published on May 16, 2017. It was updated on July 6, 2018 with daily price auto-updates and other latest info. It was again updated on March 19, 2019 with new info and to reflect changed competition from other speakers.

These two speakers are single-piece aluminum cylinders with rubberized tops and bottoms. Customersgenerally fawn over their classy looks.

The Bose Soundlink Revolve: Top view. It is quite easy to switch between multiple inputs.

More importantly, they sound great, even to audio geeks. CNET feels that they sound “excellent”, and TechRadar lauds their “detailed and expansive sound” and rich bass. Nobody is claiming that they sound better than a good set of bookshelf speakers or than the less-portable wireless home audio systems like Sonos, but criticsgenerallythinkthat the Revolve is at the top of the enormous Bluetooth speaker heap for its small hand-held size. And they agree that the Revolve+, which is bigger, sounds even better.1One notable exception is the contrarians over at Which?, who feel that both speakersoveremphasize the bass end, and prefer other speakers that we discuss below.

The Revolve and Revolve+ speakers have dual opposing passive radiators and a powerful transducer that faces down towards an acoustic deflector (so they don’t necessarily need to be placed on a hard surface, though that can certainly improve the bass too). The idea is that these speakers can be placed anywhere in the center of the action and sound just as good to everyone who is around them.

At 12 and 16 hours, both have more battery life than you’ll likely need for an all-day or all-night party, and they’re splashproof (with an IPX4 rating, which is a binding claim for a certain degree of water-resistance). Many other good Bluetooth speakers (like those mentioned later) are fully IPX7 waterproof and can be dunked underwater — but not too many listeners realistically need this level of protection.

Other features to be aware of for both Soundlink Revolve speakers:

Threaded Tripod Mount: This, we think, is genius. You can mount the Bose Revolve and Revolve+ anywhere that you can mount a camera, by screwing into the standard threaded mount on the bottom. This means that you could place the speakers on a tripod in the yard, or, interestingly, use a flexible clawed tripod to attach them anywhere else. Do consider, however that both units sound a just bit better when placed on a solid surface in order to leverage the downward-facing driver.

Google Assistant and Siri Integration: Pushing the multi-function button on the top of the speakers triggers whichever is the relevant assistant for your linked phone. We’re not particular fans of smart speakers in general so far, and for now we think this assistant-request button makes the Revolve and Revolve+ actually superior to the always-on, gimmicky home speakers (“assistants”) like the Apple Homepod, Google Home or Amazon Tap. (You can also pair the Bose Revolve or Plus with an Echo dot, if you must — we don’t think it’s worth the trouble.) Most likely, you’ll actually just use the personal assistant apps directly on your phone. If you do plan on using your speaker while travelling or outside, the Bose speakers’ assistant integration is definitely better than a smart speaker, as those are useless once you’re away from wifi.

Speakerphone: The Revolve and Revolve+ speakerphone function works great, but most people never use it. Your smartphone already has a speakerphone function that works fine.

Handles multiple inputs: The Revolve and Revolve+ can both switch flawlessly between multiple Bluetooth sources, such as phones, tablets, and laptops. You can also connect them directly to a computer via USB.

Apps: The Bose Connect iOS or Android apps allow you to pair any two Bose Soundlink speakers, including the Revolve and Revolve+. This allows you to create a wide stereo soundstage anywhere, on the go, or to simply double up the sound in “party mode”. These apps can also be used to update the firmware of the speakers (and it’s recommended that you do so upon purchase).

How the Bose Soundlink Revolve and Revolve + Stack Up Against their Competition

The smallest portable Bluetooth speaker is the Bose Soundlink Micro. It can fit in a coat pocket and yet manages to offer something close to the Bose signature soundstage and quite a bit of loudness. We review the Micro here as our pick for best speaker for its petite size.

Note that if you already have any of these current Bose speakers, you can now pair them (via iOS or Android apps) with the Revolve or Revolve + for bigger sound, or to create a stereo pair. So it can be worthwhile to stay in the Bose universe just for that reason.

You may still see former Bose Bluetooth speaker options floating around: the Soundlink Mini II and the Soundlink III). Both were more suitable for inside use and were not as water- and shock- resistant as the Revolve line, nor did they offer 360-degree sound.

We think that the strongest non-Bose competition to the Revolve and Revolve+ is from Ultimate Ears. Our overall favorite small cylindrical speaker for travel is the smaller and more portable UE Boom 3. It also pushes out loud, even, punchy 360-degree sound, and it is much lighter, more durable, and not at all incidentally cheaper than the Bose Soundlink Revolve.

Compare Pricing (Yes, There Are Sites Other than Amazon!) and Latest Deals

Pricing for these speakers has gone down a bit over time, but overall been pretty stable (whereas other Bluetooth speaker brands vary widely from week to week and dealer to dealer).

Nevertheless it’s always worth a quick peek to shop around. We’ve got links to a range of outlets below that have had these at good prices; click through for the latest for each (they open in new windows).

A bit smaller, but the best sounding speaker of its size in the ears of most critics and consumer organizations. And an alternative to upgrading to the Revolve+ is to just grab two Revolves and for a travelling stereo (paired via the app).

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